It is often valuable to be able to combine a scanning probe microscope with a second device such as a scanning electron microscope. It would be desirable to be able to quickly and accurately move a sample between the two devices.
In a probe microscope with a cantilever carrying a probe tip, the precise position of the probe tip is not known so the probe tip is offset from its intended position by a tip error vector. It would be desirable for this tip error vector to be accurately accounted for during operation of the microscope.